We’ve already written a bit about this in our handy guide to maintaining a WordPress website. However, we’ve noticed that there’s one area of maintenance that often seems to get overlooked: content.
Website content needs to be kept ‘clean’, by removing dead links for example. But it also needs to be updated. The big question is: how often should you be updating your WordPress website content?
When does WordPress content need updating?
There’s really no definitive one-size-fits-all answer here. It’s mostly going to come down to how much time you have available, and how much you’re planning to invest in content.
Having worked with businesses of all sizes for many years, our advice is to update your content as often as you can.
Why? Well, there’s a huge list of reasons why regular content updates are good for business, such as:
- Giving visitors a reason to keep coming back for more valuable information
- Keeping visitors updated about new product launches, new services, or company news
- Positioning yourself as an industry leader that’s on top of the latest developments
- Keeping previous content relevant by updating old links or publishing new versions
- Appealing to the Google ranking algorithm through the recency factor, to boost visibility
- Staying ahead of the competition
There are also times when you definitely DO need to update content, whether you have time or not, like:
- Changes to the Google algorithm
- Shifts that make your content irrelevant
- If your target audience changes
- When there’s big news in your industry that you’re expected to respond to (hello, COVID-19)
- If you launch new products to inform customers
When it comes to blogging in particular, HubSpot recommends that smaller organisations should be looking at 1-2 new blog posts per week to improve online awareness. To boost organic traffic, that figure rises to 3 or 4 posts per week. But blogs are just one part of the equation. Updating content doesn’t just mean blogging. It also means tweaking existing posts, and adapting your web copy to ensure the message you’re sending out always aligns with your audience.
How to update WordPress content
One of the reasons why WordPress is so popular is that it’s simple. And the good news is that it’s easy to update WordPress content. You can do this either through the dashboard or through the admin bar. There are also some good WordPress SEO plugins that can help with both creating and updating content. Other WordPress tools are specifically designed to make updating content easier than ever before. WordPress itself even allows you to schedule your content updates in advance, to save you time.
Need a helping hand?
Content updates are essential, but they can also be time-consuming. If you’re looking for some expert WordPress support to help you update with accuracy and frequency, we can help. Request a callback or give the WPMaintain team a call on 020 7129 1346 to find out more about our flagship WordPress maintenance service.
